DJ Lagway and Jon Sumrall never seemed like a good fit, so it's no surprise that the quarterback announced he'll be entering the transfer portal and looking for a new home.
It's also not a surprise that Lagway and Sumrall didn't click in their meeting prior to the former five-star prospect making his announcement. The latter is being reported by Chris Hummer from CBS Sports, but truthfully even a blind man could've seen this coming from a mile away.
DJ Lagway wanted to stay at Florida. But the initial meetings between Lagway and the new staff did not go well, multiple sources tell @CBSSports.
— Chris Hummer (@chris_hummer) December 15, 2025
On the split and what comes next for the former 5-star recruit. https://t.co/93L6ASKGp1 pic.twitter.com/QIF0BXW6Vr
Sumrall's intensity is not for everyone
If there's anything we already know about the new Gators coach, it is that he's a madman. Players will either want to run through a wall for him or run him through a wall. His record so far tells me he's getting much more of the former than the latter. Point is, Sumrall wants guys on his level. Guys that start their days at 100 MPH and just get faster from there.
Lagway is very low-key and soft-spoken, much like the coach that recruited him, Billy Napier. That doesn't mean that Lagway isn't competitive or that he doesn't care or that he isn't a leader. He's just a more quiet kid, and he's probably more comfortable trying to lead by example than screaming at the top of his lungs.
You can win with those guys. Chris Leak was a soft-spoken player and he won a title for Florida in 2006 that he barely gets credit for. But most Gator fans wanted more emotion from Lagway, especially when things started going downhill and the losses began piling up.
Sumrall is going to push his players hard
The sources in Hummer's story were probably associated with Lagway and are trying to paint him in as positive a light as possible. Among the notable things in the report was that Sumrall and the staff were prodding Lagway about being a competitor.
This tells me Sumrall has a lot of Urban Meyer in him, which makes sense. Meyer was known for really challenging his players and pushing them to the point where they probably hated him and performed at a high level just to shut him up. He challenged their ego. The ones that couldn't handle that didn't hang around for long.
That's going to be Sumrall's style. He's going to be tough on players and challenge them mentally and physically. The ones who can deal with it will survive. Could Lagway have been successful being coached like this? Possibly, but we'll never know. However, if first impressions were any indication, both sides will be better off without each other.